The blinding white light didn't burn. It was cold, sterile, and silent.
As their vision adjusted, the crew of the Starling Gale gasped. They weren't in a room. They were nowhere.
They stood on a floor made of perfectly transparent glass. Beneath their feet, thousands of miles down, lay the world they had traveled—the green expanse of Verdance, the grey smog of Iron Reef, the vast blue ocean. It was all laid out like a map.
Above them, there was no ceiling. There was only the cosmos—a swirling nebula of violet and gold Aether currents, weaving together like a massive, celestial loom.
And in the center of it all, floating cross-legged in the air, was Elara.
She wasn't wearing her black combat robes anymore. She was draped in shimmering white silk that seemed to flow into the nebula itself. Her eyes were closed, her fingers moving gracefully as if she were playing an invisible harp. With every pluck of her fingers, the stars above shifted, rearranging themselves.
"You're late," she said softly, her voice echoing not in the room, but directly in their heads. "I was just finishing the final stitch."
She opened her eyes. The violet gaze fell upon them, heavy as a planet.
"Welcome to the Zenith," Elara smiled. "The place where the world is written."
"Get down from there!" Mara shouted, aiming her empty gun out of sheer habit, then throwing it aside to draw her knife. "We're here to end your little game."
Elara chuckled. She slowly uncrossed her legs and drifted down until her bare feet touched the glass floor. "Game? You still think small, Captain Vance. Look down."
She pointed to the floor. Beneath their feet, they saw the image of Iron Reef. But it was changing. The smog was vanishing. The rusted metal was turning into shining silver.
"I am not playing a game," Elara said. "I am editing. I am removing the ugly parts. The pain. The hunger. The loss."
She looked at Mara. "I can rewrite the timeline, Mara. I can make it so the Kraken never attacked your ship. I can make it so Grak never stood on that pier."
Mara froze. The knife in her hand trembled. "You... you can bring him back?"
"I can make it so he never died," Elara promised, her voice dripping with temptation. "I can give Kael a family that wasn't slaughtered. I can give Liora a world where healing is never needed because no one ever gets hurt."
She turned her gaze to Aarav. "And you... the boy from the other world. I can send you back. To the moment before you fell into the pond. You can live a normal, perfect life. No whispers. No staring eyes. Just... peace."
For a moment, silence hung in the void. It was a terrifying offer. A perfect world. No pain. No scars.
Kael lowered his swords slightly. Liora looked at Aarav, her eyes wide. Mara was staring at the floor, tears forming in her eyes.
Elara's smile widened. She had found the crack in their armor.
Aarav looked down at the perfect world beneath his feet. Then he looked at the scar on Mara's arm. He looked at the weariness in Kael's stance. He felt the warmth of Liora's hand in his.
"It's a lie," Aarav said quietly.
"It is perfection," Elara countered.
"It's a cage," Aarav said, his voice rising. He stepped forward. "A world without pain means a world without growth. Grak died protecting us. That pain... that loss... it gave us strength. If you erase it, you erase him. You erase the meaning of his sacrifice."
He looked at Mara. "Would you trade Grak's bravery for a fake memory where he lives as a coward?"
Mara's head snapped up. The confusion vanished from her eyes, replaced by cold fury. "No," she spat. "Grak chose his end. I won't let you cheapen it."
"And I," Kael raised his swords again, the steel singing, "am defined by my scars. Take them away, and I am nothing."
"I don't want a world where I'm not needed," Liora said, stepping beside Aarav. "Healing means nothing without the wound."
Elara's face fell. The angelic mask cracked, revealing the arrogant tyrant beneath. She sighed, a sound of deep disappointment.
"I offer you paradise, and you choose... dust," she shook her head. "Humanity is so flawed. That is why I must fix you."
She raised her hand. "If you will not accept my world, then you do not belong in it."
The nebula above them turned blood red.
"ERASE."
She snapped her fingers.
The air around them screamed. The "stars" in the nebula didn't just twinkle; they fell. Beams of concentrated, destructive Aether rained down like lasers.
"MOVE!" Kael roared.
They scattered.
ZZZT! ZZZT! ZZZT!
Where the beams hit the glass floor, the very reality sizzled and vanished, leaving holes of pure nothingness.
"She's deleting the floor!" Mara yelled, diving and rolling. "How do we fight someone who controls reality?!"
"She doesn't control reality!" Aarav shouted, sprinting towards Elara while dodging the beams. "She controls the threads! Look at her hands!"
Elara was weaving furiously. She wasn't just casting spells; she was pulling invisible strings that connected to the Spire.
"We have to cut the strings!" Aarav yelled.
He charged at her. Elara saw him coming. She didn't move. She simply waved her hand.
The space in front of Aarav folded. The distance between them stretched to infinity. No matter how fast he ran, she remained far away.
"You can't reach me, Tideborne," Elara mocked. "I am the distance."
"Liora! Disrupt the flow!" Aarav shouted.
Liora understood. She couldn't fight Elara's power, but she could clutter it. She slammed her hands onto the glass floor. "Overgrowth!"
Spectral vines erupted from the glass, not to grab Elara, but to tangle the invisible threads she was weaving.
Elara frowned. "Annoying weed."
The space snapped back to normal. Aarav stumbled forward, suddenly close to her.
"Kael! Mara! Flank her!"
Kael came in from the right, Mara from the left.
Elara spun, her silk dress whipping around like a blade. A shockwave of purple force blasted Mara and Kael backward.
But Aarav was in the center. He leaped into the air, bringing his sword down.
Elara looked up. For the first time, she used a physical defense. She summoned a sword of pure black crystal into her hand and blocked Aarav's strike.
CLANG!
The impact was massive. But unlike Vorlag, Elara wasn't pushed back. She held Aarav's sword with one hand, her face inches from his.
"You have spirit," she whispered, her violet eyes boring into his. "But you are using a dead man's sword against a goddess."
"I'm not using the sword," Aarav gritted his teeth. The Blade Sigil in his palm flared brighter than it ever had before. It turned from silver to blinding gold.
He wasn't attacking her body. He was attacking her weapon.
He pushed his consciousness into her crystal sword. He felt its structure. It was made of condensed Shadow Aether. It was unstable.
"SHATTER!" Aarav roared.
He poured his energy into the flaw of her blade.
CRACK!
Elara's eyes widened in genuine shock. Her crystal sword exploded in her hand. Shards of black glass flew into her face.
A thin, red line appeared on her perfect, pale cheek. A cut.
She stumbled back, touching the wound. She looked at the blood on her fingers. She looked at Aarav.
The calm goddess was gone.
Her face twisted into a mask of pure, demonic rage. The room darkened. The nebula turned black.
"YOU DARE?" she shrieked, her voice shaking the entire Spire. "YOU DARE MAKE ME BLEED?"
She began to float higher, her hair turning white, her eyes glowing with raw, destructive power.
"Okay," Mara gulped, standing up shakily. "Now we made her mad."
"Good," Aarav said, gripping his sword tight, though his hands were shaking. "If she bleeds, we can kill her."
The final round had begun.